How to Set a Static IP Address on Raspberry Pi

If you’re trying to access a Raspberry Pi on your local network, there are times when you’ll really need its IP address. Sure, you can usually SSH or VNC into a Pi by using its hostname, but for something like port forwarding on a router (which you’ll use to create an externally-accessible Minecraft server or web server), an actual IP v4 address may be needed. The problem: every time you reboot your Pi, the IP address can change, based on what the router decides to assign at the moment.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to make sure that your Raspberry Pi always gets the same IP address on your local network or, at least, always tries to get the same address on your local network. It almost goes without saying that if, at the time it boots, another device that’s powered on is already using the address in question, your Pi will either have no IP v4 address at all or (if you configured it as such) it will choose an alternative one. So keep that in mind.

Note that this tutorial assumes you already have a Raspberry Pi that’s connected to your network. If not, please see our tutorials on how to set up a Raspberry Pi and how to set up a headless Raspberry Pi (no monitor required).

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